Something More
by Stella Novellas
Summary: Team Natsu is excited to be on their first official S-Class mission, except for is Lucy, who has a bone to pick with the trees. No amount of Bob Ross tutorials can convince her that they're happy little fellows, not when they're eyeing her like this! Rated M for depictions of violence. {Disclaimer: If I owned Fairy Tail, I wouldn't NEED to write fanfics, now would I?}
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Hello, lovelies! It's been a while, I know, but if you happen to follow my old profile, you probably knew this would be coming out soon! I promised I'd have this guy rewritten and revised in October, and I managed, even though college was telling me that the speech due in three days is more important. Meh, who needs speeches when you can have ships, right?

This isn't a Halloween fan fiction, but... well, to avoid spoilers, I did rate this M for a reason. It's nothing too bad! I'm saving the really dark, ghastly goodness for the actual Halloween fan fictions that I'll probably release around Christmas because I'm lazy and I do kinda want to pass my classes.

Anyways, for those of you that have read the original version of this fan fiction on my other profile, this is the official notice, and I'll update the original so everyone knows this: _the original will be deleted tomorrow night!_ I know it's kind of abrupt, but that story is an embarrassment compared to what I'm capable of now and I'd rather see more input on what I'm proud of than what I'm mortified to have posted nearly three years ago.

With all of that out of the way, you're free to dive on into what you actually came here for!

Without further adieu, I give you...

* * *

 _ **~*Something More*~**_

Written by:

Stella  
(Stella's Novellas)

* * *

CURIOSITY WILL CONQUER FEAR EVEN

MORE THAN BRAVERY WILL

—James Stephens—

* * *

It looked at her, perhaps even through her with how transparent she felt underneath its gaze. Of course, that's not something she could say out loud. Maybe if her team had tensed up the way she had upon entering, maybe if they'd been casting glances out the window as she did, maybe if they let their smiles drop for a fraction of a second, she could have told them.

They never once hesitated at any point in their unpacking, bickering, and laughing. They didn't feel it like she did, and perhaps that's why she felt so vulnerable.

The forest wasn't looking at them. Only her.

A squeak tore from her throat when she felt a warm hand on her shoulder, jumping as she refrained from kicking the pinkette reflexively. "Natsu!"

"You're spacing out, Luce. Erza's gonna scope out the town and grab some food for everyone, so we're all meeting back here at five," he advised, before shooting a toothy grin, "I haven't had my pre-dinner dinner yet. Come with us!"

Gray scoffed, and Natsu's smile twitched. "How many dinners do you need, flamebrain?"

"The more power I use, the more I gotta eat. That explains why you don't eat half of what I do!"

"I don't need five orders of burnt chicken to kick your ass, matchstick!"

"You wanna fight, popsicle!?"

Lucy calmly slipped past Erza as the redhead turned on her heel, gauntlets raised to end the scuffle. "I'll be in the library when you wake up!" Natsu was out cold before he could ask what she meant, but Happy gave her a thumbs up as he curled up on his unconscious partner's back.

Once Erza had wiped any unflattering smudges from her armor, she followed the blonde outside, pointing out the various places she intended to visit before making her way down the barren street.

Humming a soft tune, the stellar mage turned on her heel and began her short walk to the library, which sat just a few buildings away from the hotel they'd taken up residence in. As she moved, her eyes took notice of her surroundings, internally mapping the city out in her mind.

The mission itself was simple enough: remove dangerous beasts. It was the details behind the mission that had caused her to hesitate at first. Said beasts were unknown in size, ability, location, quantity, even motive if they happened to have any. They'd also killed three people, and although the bodies hadn't been found, bone fragments belonging to distinctly different people were a telltale sign. It was suspected that it was a family of three that had been lost, but not nearly enough had been found to discern who it was that had been taken.

All they had to work with was speculation.

Speculation and the chill that went down her spine every five minutes, as it was now. A deep breath kept her from sprinting the last few meters into the library, but with the way the forest was eyeing her, it was a very tempting action to take.

Her lip worried between her teeth as she tried to shake off the unpleasant feeling, wondering how she could broach the topic with her teammates.

 _Hey, guys, I'm pretty sure the trees have been staring at me since we got here._

Right. That would go over well.

Lucy shook her head, opting to keep it to herself for now as she focused on the bookshelves. If she was being honest with herself, she was probably being paranoid. It _was_ the first official S-Class mission Erza had brought the team on, so nerves were a given. That thought alone gave her the assurance she needed to ignore the lingering feeling of eyes boring into her back, and she put her best foot forward as she grabbed books she felt would be useful in learning about the area.

It was one of the few things she prided herself in amongst her team; her intellect. They were all brilliant fighters and could outsmart many of the foes they faced, but they typically never looked into the areas they would be working in, resorting in last-minute battles that left them all low on power with a fair amount of injury and very, very empty wallets thanks to damages. It also didn't help that most of their knowledge was limited to all things battle-oriented, whether it be weaponry or past enemies. She, on the other hand, had a broader range of topics in her arsenal.

She set aside the book on top for the time being, having haphazardly thrown it to the top of the stack as she'd passed it by, and focused on the first book she'd grabbed. After spending a short moment admiring the cover, Lucy flipped the pages open, placed her Gale Force glasses on her nose, and dove in.

* * *

Natsu wasn't a doctor, but he was pretty sure his nose was broken. Maybe it was the way it was pressed into the not-so-soft carpet of the hotel room, or maybe it was the fact that he'd been laying on it for the better part of three hours, but it had never hurt this badly before.

In an attempt to be helpful, Happy tested his theory and batted at the sore appendage, confirming that no, it wasn't broken, but yes, it was tender and hitting it didn't feel good. At all. "Sorry, Natsu," the exceed mumbled as the dragon slayer cupped a hand over it, hissing a bit at the ache that rippled out over his face. Before he could scold his friend, two things came to mind.

One, Lucy wasn't there. She was probably fine on her own, but he was bored.

Two, Gray was still unconscious, and while he didn't have a marker, Lucy's waterproof eyeliner was just as efficient.

It was all of five minutes later that the slayer was rubbing a stray mark off the back of his thumb, following his partner's lingering scent and finding himself unsurprised that she'd holed herself in the library.

"What weirdo sits in a library for three hours," he grumbled, making his way inside as Happy drifted further down the street, eyeing a vendor selling taiyaki with an overjoyed and equally devious gleam in his eye.

Natsu had hardly been inside for two minutes before he decided that trying to find Lucy in a library was like trying to find Gray in a strip club. They blended in painfully well. Her scent was everywhere thanks to having walked down every aisle in search of books, she was deathly quiet so as not to disturb anyone, and it didn't help that the poor fire mage rarely visited libraries to begin with. The layout was extensive, complex, and he had the vague idea that just spreading all the books out on tables would be a lot less difficult.

He was a solid two inches shorter than the massive stacks, meaning he couldn't just peek over the top to find her. Even if he could, she was probably too short to see. Just as the man decided to start setting things on fire and wait for her to come to him, he rounded a corner and found an area littered with small tables, chairs, and beanbags. The blonde was settled into one of many chairs, eyes narrowed as she flipped through the pages, her gale force glasses set next to her hand as it seemed to be writing, or maybe sketching, on a blank notebook.

"Luce!" She floated above her chair for a solid second, the book fumbled to a close, and a very dark, ragged line now took up half of the page she'd been writing on. Any other day, and he would have laughed at the sight, but the solid glare she sent his way had his chuckle dying in his throat.

Scaring Lucy when she was working was probably the worst idea he'd ever had.

"Natsu…" she growled, and the fact that she still followed the rule of silence and whispered it made it all the more menacing. A shiver ran down his spine as he rubbed the back of his neck, muttering apologies as his other hand raised, whether apologetic or to block anything she threw at him he was unsure. It was only after she'd released a shaky sigh and her brow unfurrowed a fraction that he deemed it safe to approach, pulling up a chair and staring at her notes.

"What're ya workin' on?" He asked, deciding that none of it made much sense and opting to stare at her until she explained.

Her cheeks reddened when she realized his gaze was unmoving, so she pointedly focusing on the papers she'd strewn over the table to avoid his relentless stare. "I'm just doing some research on the area. This," she pointed to the paper before the pinkette, "is a map of all of the routes. It's rough, but sketching it out makes it easier for me to understand. The little circles are where the bones were found, so those would be good areas to examine."

"Over here," she continued, flipping through various pages, "are mainly just facts about the landscape. Dangerous plants, commonly seen animals, areas to be cautious of, and so on. This page is about villains and criminals that have been in this area before, just in case the beasts have any relation to any of them, but I doubt it."

Natsu reached out, snagging the book at the top of the stack of books she'd read and flipping through it. "Oh, I didn't see much of importance in that one. It went into more detail about past criminal cases, but the summaries were enough-"

"Oi, why are your keys in here?" Her brow scrunched at his interruption, leaning over to peer at the page. Her throat went a bit dry as a sketch of one of the criminals she'd previously read about appeared next to a picture of a celestial key, though it wasn't the color of any key she'd ever seen. Silver was common, gold fairly rare, and there was rumor of a thirteenth black key, but this was a deep violet, with streaks of black striking through it like the webs in shattered glass.

Despite having never seen it before, it looked unbelievably wrong. Unnatural, even. Natsu called her name, but Lucy paid him no mind as she strung her Gale force glasses over her eyes and breezed through the few pages discussing the criminal. When she sat back, tears were pricking at her eyes, but Natsu's nose couldn't smell the sadness over the deep, boiling scent of anger in the air. "I know people mistreat their spirits, but… how is this even possible?"

Her hand unconsciously hovered over her own keys as she eyed the text with a menacing glare. "Apparently, he discovered a way to steal a spirit's power for himself. Doing so is one of the many taboos celestial mages have to avoid. Copying the power of a spirit is one thing, but stealing it and absorbing it yourself… it's like intaking ethernano loaded with a magic different from your own. It messes with your entire system, and enough of it can completely change your own magic. He used his spirit like a person would ethernano, and absorbed the spirit's magic. Without it, in this world, a spirit will die."

"So he killed his spirit?" Natsu asked, and Lucy gave an uncertain nod.

"I think so, but if that were the case, the key would be entirely black. The fact that it was discolored… it may be because the celestial magic is still present, but the spirit itself is gone. That was years ago, though, I doubt the mage survived for long with magic from another realm in their body. I know there are spells that allow mages to use a spirit's power for five, maybe ten minutes. Years would kill even a practiced celestial mage." She flipped the book shut, shoving it far from her as she ran a thumb over her keys. "I can't imagine doing such a horrible thing to a spirit. People see them as tools, but still, to be able to do that to another being… it's sickening."

The stellar mage's focus was taken away from the books when an arm draped over her shoulder, tucking her into her partner's side. "Which spirit was it?" She peeked inside the book again, before letting the cover close.

"Maybe Lacertae," she replied, leaning into his half-hug. "Maybe Serpens. I haven't seen that symbol in ages." Almost as quickly as it had come about, her anger faded, leaving a small sense of remorse for the poor spirit in its place. "Thanks, Natsu," Lucy whispered, attempting to move from under his arm.

"No problem, weirdo." Her eye twitched as she cast him a sidelong glance.

Without much thought, the blonde's elbow dug into his side as she retorted, "Way to ruin the moment, idiot!" The slayer laughed at her attempt at a pout, which was disfigured by the smile hidden beneath it. Once he started, she couldn't help but join him, only to flush and cough when the librarian's head appeared, shushing the two of them with a glare. "Well… anyways, I should probably put these back. We have to meet Erza in the hotel room in ten minutes, right?"

Her partner blanched as he looked at the clock. "She's gonna kill us if we're late."

At that, Lucy suddenly remembered just who she was supposed to meet, and she shoved a few books in Natsu's hands as she gathered the rest. "Follow me, we've gotta put these back!" For his part, he was doing well at keeping up with her, mildly impressed with how quickly she was able to put the books back where they belonged. She only stumbled once, backtracking and crouching to place the book on one of the lower shelves before carrying onwards. It was only after the last book had been put in place that Lucy paused, looking towards the pinkette with a curious look. "Did Happy come to the library with you?"

All he offered was a shrug before half-dragging his partner out the doors. "Probably not, but Erza won't beat him up too badly, right?"

"Says the one sprinting to the hotel," she muttered, only for him to pick up his pace. "Hey, slow down!" Her only reply was a devious cackle as he moved just a fraction faster.

* * *

"I'm telling you, you can't be the first one back if you never even left, ice princess!"

"Like hell I can't, you're just mad I beat you, ash-for-brains!"

Any other day and Erza would have bashed their heads in for arguing, but the fact that Gray hadn't noticed the squiggly moustache, the eyes scribbled on his eyelids, or the fish on his forehead had the redhead struggling to keep a straight face. Lucy had caved long ago, silently forgiving her partner as he'd honestly put her makeup to good use.

Happy had, in fact, made it back in time, which was surprising considering the sheer number of probably-stolen taiyaki he was carrying in his tiny arms. If it weren't for the cake stuffing his cheeks, he would have called Gray out by now. Thankfully, Lucy had time to swear him to silence as Gray continued arguing, butting foreheads with Natsu as they yelled insults.

The pinkette threw the first punch, leaving Gray laughing against the wall as the slayer now had his own fish-shaped mark on his forehead. It took a few moments for the ice mage to realize just where the mark had come from, but once he did, the two men rushed to the bathroom to view themselves in the mirror.

"I'll allow them to settle this amongst themselves," Erza mused as Happy disappeared into the room, cheering Natsu on as another scuffle broke out. "Don't damage the hotel!"

"Aye Sir!" The men squawked, freezing in terror for a moment before the fight resumed behind the now-closed door.

After waiting a moment to ensure that the two really were practicing some semblance of control, the scarlet-haired woman took a seat on one of beds, gesturing for Lucy to sit across from her. "While they settle their differences, why don't we discuss what we learned during this evening's outing." At the blonde's nod of agreement, Erza took a bite of one of the many taiyaki on the bedside table, motioning for Lucy to begin.

"Right, so I spent my time in the Library and focused on researching the area's landscape, history, and past criminals that have been here." She flipped to the page with the sketched map, one finger pointing to a small circle towards the top. "This is where all of the nature trails begin, and the circle at the bottom is where they end. You take one trail down, then choose another on your way back. There are six in total. The bones of the victims were found between trails Two and Four, above the small cave Trail Three will take you through.

"I've marked the areas that were searched in green, and the areas that are likely to be uninhabitable in blue. All other areas not on the trails are likely locations for the beasts to be hiding, if they're still here." She flipped again, giving a brief overview of dangerous plants to be wary of and animals that are common in the area, before pausing as she turned to the page listing the criminals.

"What is it?" Erza asked, noting the blondes hesitation from around her third Taiyaki.

Lucy blinked at the names, before flipping back to look at the dangerous plants in the area. "Erza, none of the animals on the list could eat these dangerous plants. Yet they still stay perfectly under control despite the freedom they have to spread." Her mind held the last piece of the puzzle, but the answer just wouldn't click into place. Before she could really grasp where her brain had taken her, the bed shook and raised her into the air as Natsu flopped face-down on its surface, Gray having stumbled before he ever made past the bathroom door.

"I think they're done," Happy mumbled, before shrieking at his slightly diminished snack pile. Erza, having already forgotten Lucy's stumble, quickly grasped the back of Natsu's shirt and flipped him face-up, scowling at the black-and-blue face of her friend.

"You still have eyeliner on your face. You're lucky none of it got on the bed… you should clean up before sleeping."

"I can't feel my everything," Natsu groaned. Having lost her train of thought, his companion merely sighed and busied herself with getting a warm towel for each of the men while Erza explained rather harshly that if he was in pain, he could feel just fine. Deciding to spare the pinkette's ears, Lucy tasked Erza with getting the makeup off of Gray, who was slowly regaining conscious for the second time that day, while she tended to Natsu. "Lu-u-u-u-shy-y-y," Natsu groaned, his cheeks squishing together as she scrubbed the stubborn makeup off. She wasn't wasting her make-up wipes on this idiot, no matter how funny his prank had been. "Ow ow ow, tha one'sh shore!"

"You should have thought about that before fighting," the blonde sighed, finally slowing her scrubbing as she reached the much firmer surface of his forehead. "Wendy isn't here to heal you, so let's just hope the two of you aren't too sore when the sun is up tomorrow. We've got locations to check out and, if we're lucky, the beasts will be there."

Natsu pouted at her sigh, picking up quite clearly on her exasperation with how much he'd gotten hurt — not that the ice prick had done any of it, of course. It was all intentional, just so the poor guy didn't look bad!

At least, that's what Natsu told himself. Still, Lucy wasn't happy about it either way. Once she leaned back to toss the rag in the hamper, he sat up and ruffled her hair, much to her annoyance. "Thanks, Luce," he said, barely dodging her kick as he moved to retrieve the food that Erza had left on the table. The first two boxes were obviously not his — one was ungodly sweet, the other _smelled_ like it was cold. He took the last two in his hands without much thought, and handed the lighter one to his partner, knowing with a whiff that the box left in his own hands was heavily burnt and spicy just from the scent.

Her pout no longer prevalent, the two enjoyed their dinner to the sounds of Erza's chastising, her armor clinking as she scrubbed at a now-agonized Gray, whose face was an unnatural shade of red and still marred by a stubborn stain.

* * *

Her fingers clawed at her sheets and comforter as she tugged them closer to her, wondering if the room was unnaturally cold or if she was chilled to the bone for another reason entirely. Her heart rate had picked up ever since she'd heard it, an unbelievably small click at the window.

The window that was on the third floor of the hotel, too high for any of the small, decorative trees to reach, not that any were close enough. Her eyes, which had been closed in an attempt to ignore the feeling of being watched she was becoming accustomed to, had shot open just in time to see the moonlight on the wall flicker as something darted past.

When the covers were as close as possible to her, she held them with one hand while the other clutched at the space over her heart, trying desperately to calm herself. She couldn't feel the eyes watching her anymore, but just knowing that something had been there, not only now but during every uncertain moment while she stared into the forest… it ate away at her already-slipping hold on her emotions.

Another noise sounded, this one much louder and closer, and she jerked, sitting up and peering about the room fearfully, only to see Natsu staring wide-eyed at her frightened form. He looked like he wanted to say something, but paused as Erza let out a gentle snore. Rather than risk waking her, he moved slowly from his own bed and towards Lucy's. Unlike the multitude of other instances where she kicked him from her bed, she didn't say a word against it, simply curling against him as she shook lightly.

His arm moved to wrap around her after pulling the covers more securely over her. "What's wrong, Luce?" He whispered.

"I'll tell you in the morning," she replied, so softly he had to tilt his head to hear her. "I just… need to sleep for now."

The slayer nodded his understanding, but kept his arm securely around her shoulders as he waited for her to fall asleep. His eyes never once left the window, having heard the same slight sound she had, but while he hadn't seen anything, the smell of something sharp and unnatural was radiating from the slightly-cracked window that he _knew_ Erza had been sure to close.

Something wasn't right, but only morning would answer his questions. With one last restless glance at the window, he buried his nose into his partner's hair and slept, unsure of who was comforting who.


	2. Chapter 2

THE GREATER THE POWER,

THE MORE DANGEROUS THE ABUSE

—Edmund Burke—

* * *

Erza's foot tapped restlessly against the carpet as she thought over both Natsu and Lucy's recounts of last night. While the pinkette was still nursing his bruised head after Erza had flung him from the bed into the wall, screaming all the while about Lucy's honor, Lucy was just as focused as the scarlet knight.

"So, something was at our window, and managed to open it. It escaped, but it's smell lingered. You don't know what the smell was?" The woman asked, but Natsu merely shook his head. "Well, whatever it was, it was able to scale the walls outside to the third floor and open a window. It's intelligent to say the least."

"It's been around since the first day we arrived," Lucy mumbled, and at that, Erza's tapping stopped and all eyes were on her, Natsu's the most concerned as he felt her shiver from where she sat beside him. "I thought I was just paranoid because it's our first S-Class as a team, so I didn't think much of it, but… I always had this feeling of being watched. I felt it last night, too, and then Natsu and I heard the noise. I jumped when I heard it, and opened my eyes in time to see the wall flicker… and then the feeling was gone. It's been watching me this whole time."

"I wish I could disagree with you," Erza began, "but you're right. Whatever this creature is, it hasn't been watching the rest of us. I would have sensed it when I examined the edge of the forest yesterday, and Natsu would have smelled it. For some reason, it's interested in you, Lucy."

"So, do we need to figure out why it's stalking Lucy first, or do we need to find whatever is doing the stalking first?" Gray voiced, keeping his eyes on the woods outside the window, almost daring the creature to return.

Natsu glared at the ice mage with a look Lucy could only describe as exasperation. "If it's after Luce, and we go out there without knowing why, she's at risk."

"None of us have ever been in this town before, and we're always at risk on missions. Besides, we're all here to look out for each other, and I can take care of myself," Lucy replied, and Natsu pouted at her. "I know you're worried, but it will be fine. For now, we need to keep whatever it is from killing any more innocent people. For all we know, the beast that killed the three tourists and whatever is after me are entirely unrelated."

"She's right, however, we can't be careless. No one travels alone from this point onward." Erza stated, and no one could argue with that. "Now that that's taken care of, I suppose we should focus on the mission. Lucy?"

"Yes?"

"Which areas do you recommend we examine first?"

The stellar mage slipped the notes she'd taken from her notebook and glanced over them. "Let's start with Trail Three and see if we can find any clues. The areas around trails Two through Four have been searched, so I'm going to suggest we skip reviewing those areas and head to the other likely areas if we don't find anything."

"How many possible areas are there?" Gray asked, leaning down to look at the sketch in her hands. "If there are too many, we can travel in pairs and meet up elsewhere."

"Ten possibilities, but only four are very likely, so I'd suggest sticking together," Lucy replied, moving to stand. "If we head out now, we can probably expect to search all four locations and the trail before lunch and see what we need to do from there."

Natsu, though he did his best to stay focused, was admittedly more motivated by lunch than the mission and was the first out the door. By the time the others had reached the area where all six trails converged, he was sniffing the air as he wandered down the third trail, Happy scoping the area from above. "This one definitely smells different from the others," the Slayer noted, wrinkling his nose in distaste. "Same smell that was at the window last night. It's all over the place, but mostly here."

"Can you follow it anywhere?" Lucy asked, but Natsu shook his head.

"Whatever it is has been all over these woods. I can tell where it's been most often if I'm there, but otherwise…" he shrugged, folding his hands behind his head and walking further along. "It smells horrible all over the place!"

The others followed the slayer down the trail, and it was only twenty minutes later that Lucy called their attention, pointing at a small upwards slope that grew into a hill that the trail ran underneath. "The top of the hill is where the bodies were found." A few small yellow ribbons were tied around the trunks of the trees on the hill, words of caution printed upon them in black ink. When the group arrived, what they expected to be a barren crime scene was more depressing than anticipated.

A small picnic blanket sat near the peak of the hill, claw-like tears searing through the fabric and red stains splattered all around. Some areas looked singed as though there had been a fire, others with earth upturned in a clear sign of fruitless struggle. Whatever had happened to the tourists had been anything but painless and certainly not quick if the signs of a fight were anything to go by.

Natsu pressed his scarf over his nose and mouth, eyes dark as he looked over the area. Lucy took a moment to steel her nerves before moving forwards and examining the area more closely. "There are three distinct areas with more blood and scorch-marks. If there was only one monster, then two of the three family members would have been able to run further away, or at least one could have. The claw marks and prints vary in size as well, so I'm going to assume there are multiple monsters, not only one. It's also unlikely that the three people had the same type of magic, if any at all, so the beasts probably caused the scorch marks."

"Fire magic?" Gray asked, letting his fingers graze over one of the patches before he jerked his hand away with a hiss of pain. "Damn," he cursed, shaking his hand and wiping his fingertips on a clear patch of grass, "it's wet, and burns to touch. Acid?"

"I'm not sure. At least we know whatever it is is harmful to us and not just the plants," Erza stated, leaning forward as she examined claw marks in one of the trees. "The substance is here as well. I assume it's produced from the beasts' claws."

"Then why are there patches instead of trails?" Natsu asked, his voice muffled behind his makeshift mask. He stood from where he'd crouched, moving to stand beside Lucy, who had been staring at the ground for a while now as if it held all the answers. "Luce?"

"Maybe it's not from the monsters," she hummed, turning and moving to where Erza stood. "There are lots of poisonous plants out here. Maybe the beasts stepped on them during the attack. That would explain why it's in the claw mark grooves and on the ground."

"The stuff smells exactly like the monsters do, though," Natsu advised. "Unless they roll around in this stuff every day, it's got to be coming from them."

Lucy's hand moved to her chin as she thought, her mind whirling a mile a minute as she tried to come up with an explanation for it all. She knew there were multiple monsters, at least three, she knew that they attacked humans and most likely ate them, and she knew that they were somehow associated with some kind of poison.

The only beasts she could think of that travelled in packs and attacked people are Vulcans, but there were no species that dealt with poison of any kind, ate humans, or were intelligent enough to hide for so long without anyone knowing about them. They were brutish and loud. A beast silent and well-hidden would be a wyvern, but unless they were mating then they travelled alone, and again, they had no dealings in poison. Even if they were in a family pack, they wouldn't be out here in the open where people are commonly seen.

Of all the magical beasts she could think of that she'd researched the day before, not a single one fit all of the descriptions. It was driving her mad with curiosity, and she wondered if perhaps there wasn't more to the story than a simple animal attack.

Finally, when she grew restless with the lack of answers and influx of questions, Erza sighed and turned to her blonde teammate. "Where is the next location you would like to search? I believe we've found all we can here."

They travelled in relative silence, the gruesome scene they'd just witnessed leaving them all sobered with sorrow. Lucy guided them to the next location, careful to avoid the areas she had marked as uninhabitable and dangerous. As they approached the next area, Natsu covered his nose once again, and the group came to a halt.

"What is it?" Gray asked, eyes scanning through the trees, but Natsu merely shook his head.

"It smells like the monsters," he answered, only to gag from opening his mouth, "just worse. A lot worse."

Erza, already antsy and impatient for answers, merely moved through the brush that Natsu had refused to trudge through. She paused not far beyond the line of shrubbery, one hand on her hilt as the other motioned the team forwards. Before them all stood a house, overgrown and worse for wear with splintered wood for patio steps and cracked beams barely supporting themselves, let alone the home. The windows were either gone or nearly so, pieces of doors hanging on by broken hinges while the remainder of the wood was scattered amongst broken glass and trampled vinery.

The walls at first appeared rotted from time, but upon a second glance, the odd coloration of dried blood and a strange violet fluid took up more space than the rot, expanding beyond the wall and stretching upwards to the roof, to the overgrown grass and what seemed to be a broken-down cart. The house very obviously looked abandoned, but the signs were telling a story of not a calm exit, but a brutal one.

The group of five all crouched low as they stared at an empty home full of stories they were almost hesitant to unveil.

"Do we go in?" Happy whispered, hovering just between Erza and Natsu as he looked to them for answers.

Erza's eyes bore into the building as though she could see through it, staying stiff as if she were in a catatonic state before finally giving an exhale of uncertainty. "I don't see any signs of life or movement as of now, but judging by the trails littering the area, I'm certain this is where the beasts gather."

"Do… do you think they, you know… cleared the house out themselves?" Lucy asked, keeping her eyes peeled towards the treeline as, slowly but surely, the group began to move forwards. Erza gave a hum of thought, but said no more as she took the first step onto the patio, it's steps creaking minutely. "Considering the weight of your armor and weapon, you'd think the step would do more."

"I assume the monsters are rather large. My weight would seem miniscule in comparison," Erza stated, only to send a glare at Happy as he tested her theory on the patio railing. The loud sound of protest that followed caused the exceed to bury himself safely into Lucy's chest. "I highly doubt they sit on the rails, Happy. If they are as large as I anticipate, that is."

"Do we really have to go inside?" Gray grumbled as he followed the blonde into the home, natural light from a plethora of holes lighting the otherwise dark room. "Can't we just wait for them to come back, then tear the house down?"

"We could," Lucy agreed, "but we have no real knowledge of the beasts we're facing, and the state of the house suggests that the bodies that were found on the hill may not be the only victims. We need more information, and this is the crime scene."

Natsu nodded his agreement, though it's effect was minimized by the fact that his scarf was wrapped around his face to block the smell, leading him to use the wardrobe change as an opportunity for ninja stealth. He examined the empty living room from atop a three-legged table, one leg raised and hands pressed together in front of him. Happy, for his part, was doing his best to act as the table's fourth leg.

Erza disappeared into one of the connecting rooms, sword drawn and eyes sharp, as Gray scolded Natsu in angry whispers and Happy panted away as Natsu's sudden defensive movements shook the table. With a shake of her head and trusting that, upon her return, Erza would kick them into submission, Lucy ventured up the stairs to the second floor. By the time those four got around to the other first floor rooms, she could have the upper rooms taken care of.

Her hand carefully grazed the wall as she ventured down the hall, peeking into one room after another for anything outstanding before she began her more depthful search in the furthest room and worked her way back. Lucy paused only two doors away from the end of the hall, staring into what was notably the most in-tact room she'd witnessed so far. A bed with only slightly-ruffled sheets, a mirror with one crack as opposed to the dozens she most commonly saw, a shattered bedside table in the middle of the room, a dresser with a few claw marks as though something had tried to pry it open, and vines climbing in through the window.

It wasn't anywhere near perfect, but while the room's rather unusual case of being fairly unscathed piqued her interest, it was the vinery that she found herself drawn to. She crouched low, examining the leaves from a safe distance and using her foot to crush one of the green fronds. The same violet liquid lining the walls outside began to ooze from it, causing smoke to rise from the wooden floor below until the hazardous material faded.

Her brow furrowed as a thought seemed to form, swirling just beyond her reach and taunting her as she worked to figure out just what she was missing. "Poisonous plants… is it the type? These are common, though, at least for this area. The location… no, the area around the house has a few of these plants, it's not unusual for them to be here." She ran her palms over her face before letting her eyes focus on the trees through the window. Her hands moved to rest on her hips, and she ran her fingers comfortingly over her keys as she let her mind roam the possibilities as they came to her.

A chill swept down her spine as she stood abruptly, but she knew it wasn't the breeze when the feeling remained so long as her eyes continued to stare outwards. It was a heavy feeling, less observant and more threatening in comparison to the other episodes, and her heart began to race as she tried to spot whatever it was that had decided to return to it's den. The trees swayed harmlessly in the distance, nothing out of the ordinary to be seen, but the feeling stuck to her skin.

Lucy shook her head and gave a slow sigh. "Natsu will smell whatever they are if they get too close." With that whispered reassurance, she returned to staring at the plants by her feet. Her mind pressed at her, demanding she put the pieces together, and with a start, she remembered a vague snippet of conversation. She could feel the slight discomfort tingling on her palm as she recalled scrubbing the make-up from Natsu's cheeks, the sound of the two men arguing in the bathroom, her fingers flipping through her own notes.

" _Erza, none of the animals on the list could eat these dangerous plants."_

None of the creatures in the area could eat these plants, yet the poisonous fluids in each leaf had been released so often it gleamed on the walls of the den. Scorch marks similar to those beneath the leaf she'd just crushed had been on the hill but a mere bundle of leaves couldn't have made such wide marks considering how little damage one plant could really do. According to her research, the plants hadn't been introduced to the area when it was founded, but came into play without much warning nearly twenty-eight years ago, assumed to be the work of seeds mistaken to be those of a different flower being planted.

It spread, the dominant plant that it was, but even though it could sap the life and resources from the plants surrounding it, the poisonous entanglements never spread too far and stayed in control, from the moment it was introduced to now.

Twenty-eight years. X763. What else had occurred that year?

No new animals had been introduced to the area. The city had been calm and quaint and rather spacious for years until people grew attracted to it's quiet atmosphere and the population began to grow. X763 was one of the many years spent with neighbors being almost a mile apart from one another, town hall was more of a farmhouse than an office, the land was forested densely, bandits roamed near intercity roads but few crimes were ever committed in the town, the postal office was still fresh off the ground…

 _Few crimes were committed_. Few, but enough. One crime in particular occured in X762, just a few months before the poisonous plants began to become an official local flora.

Her keys felt heavy on her hip as the puzzle pieces began to fall into place, and a man's face flashed in her mind.

" _...it's like intaking ethernano loaded with a magic different from your own. It messes with your entire system, and enough of it can completely change your own magic."_

She turned on her heel, hand resting on her keys as she thought through it all.

" _Which spirit was it?"_

Golden light surrounded her hand as magic spiked through her keys, her mouth falling open as she prepared to call out to her team. Before her lay the remains of the broken bedside table, smoking as poison streamed over the wood. Her view of the door was blocked by a vision of black scales and purple streaks, off-colored streams of saliva wavering from heated breath as eyes the color of amethysts stared through her.

Natsu had blocked out any scents with his scarf before he'd entered the home.

"Lacertae," Lucy breathed, leaping towards the broken mirror as claws streaked through the air where she'd been standing. Loke appeared silently on the other side of the room as the mirror shattered against her shoulder and the lizard-like creature came further into the room. She heard Erza call out to her and a wave of heat filtered up through the house as crashes sounded from below them.

The lizard turned towards her, but Lucy overcame the pain in her shoulder quickly as she darted through the door, buying herself time to draw her whip as she took the stairs three at a time. Loke blasted the beast the second it began its descent of the stairs, following it down as Lucy aimed for it's legs.

"Open, Gate of the Golden Bull," she called, watching Loke leap over the beast to give her better access to it's claws as it reached for him. "Taurus!"

In the next instant, the monster was on the ground, Taurus's axe slicing through the air and Loke's light blasting at the beast. The three all remembered how it had worked when Zoldeo had weaseled his way into Capricorn's body, but this man had taken not Lacertae's body; he had absorbed her magic. She could only trust they knew how to resolve this and do her best to keep the beast from harming them.

Another shout came from the kitchen, and she leaned back to see what was going on only to drop into a crouch as another beast, larger than the one she'd caught, soared past her as though it had been tossed, Erza following suit.

"Lucy," her lion spirit called, and she turned, surprised to find not a lizard, but a small boy in the confines of her whip. Loke's hand was pressed onto the small boy's forehead as the child's body began to fade similarly to that of her spirits, dark magic spiralling around his form. "I can return them to the celestial spirit realm, and the King can deal with them there. The other spirits can do the same once these people have been defeated, and so can you, if you touch them and perform a forced gate closure."

"Got it," the blonde replied, withdrawing her weapon. "Loke, you go to Erza and help her return the spirit she's fighting. Taurus, I need you to find Gray and stay with him, tell him what you need to do. I'll find Natsu."

While her response had initially been well-planned, her spirits already moving in separate directions, she realized with a start that aside from Erza, she had no idea where her teammates were. She ran through the front door with Taurus as he sought out Gray, and her spirit mooed as they instantly spotted the ice mage skating on ice-encased grass as the beast he'd found used it's claws for traction. Taurus took off towards the battle, and Lucy spun, scanning the area for any sign of her partner.

Just as she was about to take off in a blind search, she heard a familiar attack sound out in the forest and her brow twitched further as a tree was set ablaze.

"Oh my stars, he's going to burn the forest down," she grumbled, setting off in a sprint.

Scrambling through the bushes the group had initially seen the house from, she pushed her legs to their limits as she dodged tree roots and directed herself to the familiar source of heat. As much as she'd hoped to run into him, however, she couldn't help but groan when her wish was taken all too literally and she crashed into the Dragon Slayer's back.

"Lushy!" Happy cheered from where he sat atop another beast's tail, the lizard swishing it fruitlessly from side to side in an attempt to shake the exceed off. "We found the monsters!"

"They're not monsters, they're people!" Lucy replied, and at the sound of her voice the creatures head whipped around to stare at her. The chill returned as she tilted her chin up, this lizard-like enemy towering at a height reminiscent to Elfman's. It's eyes pierced through her and, unlike the others she'd seen so far, there was a spark resting behind it's gaze that seemed all too aware. Of what, she wasn't sure.

Natsu pulled her up into a standing position, but before he could ask her for clarification, she kicked him, sending herself in one direction as he flew opposite her. Happy squealed as he was swung around to where they'd been standing, the lizard's spiny tail swaying to a stop. It whipped out, sending Happy flying into Natsu, before the beast lunged and swiped once again at the blonde.

With a disgruntled shout, Natsu stood and launched himself forwards, dodging the flailing tail as the beast ignored his presence altogether in favor of narrowing in on the blonde. Before long, she felt a familiar wave of discomfort that came in the form of her magic exertion dropping to a mere trickle. It was followed shortly after by another wave of panic as her magic began to restore as opposed to drop, and she realized with a bitter start that Loke and Taurus had been sent back.

"Natsu," she called, leaping out of the monster's reach as she worked to avoid the monster that had honed in on her presence. "My spirits and I can take care of them, and they know it. They're targeting us so that even if you defeat them, nothing will happen other than death."

"What do we do?" He called, using his fire as a deterrent for keeping the claws away from him.

In the way of a response, Lucy snagged Happy from the sky above her. "We need to regroup. Tell Erza and Gray." Her soft-spoken message went unheard by the beast, but Natsu's keen ears perked as his flames expanded, forming a barrier on one side as Lucy took off in the direction Happy had flown. The monster let out a deafening cry as it scuttered around the flaming wall and gave chase to the celestial wizard, Natsu following suit.

By the time Lucy had returned to the clearing, Gray was desperately working to put space between himself and the beast he was facing by way of ice shields and lances. As quick and powerful as they all were, the black scales lining the beasts bodies seemed impenetrable. Gray spun so that his back was to Natsu's, and the two blasted at the lizards with magics neither had experienced yet. Lucy kept to the edge for the time being, allowing her teammates to regroup fully when Erza burst through a half-shattered window, followed closely by the lizard she had initially been following.

"What now?" Gray yelled from where he stood, Erza and her shield fending one beast from his back while he froze another's tail to the ground, allowing Natsu to get a rather ineffective hit in.

It was a question Lucy knew she had to answer, because of all of the battles, hers was the only one that had ended successfully. Her mind whirred in recollection of the first beast's defeat, recalling that while she'd held the beasts legs together and Loke had blinded it, Taurus had slashed down with his axe. Despite this, the boy hadn't had a scratch on him as he'd been disappearing.

Her hand hovered over her keys as she focused her power not on summoning, but on simply connecting, and she was rewarded with a soft hum in the back of her mind. "Taurus?"

"Lu-ooooo-cy! Ho-ooo-w can I help y-ooooo-u?" The bull's voice echoed, and a smile split her face.

"Thank you for your help today, Taurus, but I need just one more thing from you. How did you and Loke manage to subdue the boy? Loke's attack blinded him, and I restrained him, but nothing my team is doing seems to be working."

A small moment of silence filtered through as she ran, one of the smaller lizards rushing at her and drawing her hand from her keys. She sprinted at an angle, catching Erza's eye, and not a moment later, the lizard behind her was redirected by a plethora of daggers ramming into the earth between it and herself as a kind of warning from her scarlet-haired teammate.

Her hand found its way back to Taurus's key, and the bull wasted no time in completing the connection. "The claws are the weak p-ooo-int. That's where a maj-ooooo-rity of Lacertae's magic is cent-ooo-red. Cut or break th-oooo-se, and then y-ooo-u can force a gate cl-ooo-sure!"

As grateful as she was for the information, she quickly broke the connection with her spirit. She loved them, quirks and all, but his mooing was going to be the death of her as every extra second had her teammates struggling more and more to keep up the defensive distractions.

With precision born from years of practice, her fingers danced over her keys until they landed on those of Gemini and Aries, both of which were summoned in quick succession. While her teammates could easily destroy the claws, it was her job not only to send the beasts back, but to make sure they had safe access to those claws.

"Gemini, I need you to copy Aries. You'll work with Erza and Gray to trap the Lizards while they aim for the claws. Aries, you'll work with Natsu and I. The second you see a safe opening after the beasts are subdued, go in for a gate closure." While copying another spirit resulted in a lower level of magic power, it didn't take much of Aries's wool to trap any beast. In many prior cases, her wool was so comfortable that no one really struggled against it, but Lucy wasn't willing to test that theory on these creatures.

The twins darted into action as a much more confident version of the ram, giving a short explanation to Gray and Erza as they set to work. Lucy extended her whip and lashed out at the largest of the three lizards which had initially been Natsu's focus, and it approached quickly and cautiously, already wary of the appearance of the ram spirit. As shy as she was, Aries was quick on her feet, and her first wool bomb just barely missed as the beast tucked to one side, it's tail coated in small tendrils of pink.

Natsu rushed forward then, working to keep it in one area with Lucy while the ram fired blast after blast of wool. Once one of the lizard's arms was slowed by the wool, Natsu let loose his wing attack, and an unearthly screech resonated around the field as one of the claws seemed to crackle and crumble as if dried out, steam rising from the now-barren appendage. Two claws still remained on that limb alone, but the success was enough to drive the team forwards as they focused on precision.

Soon enough, shrieks filled the air as one after another the mages slowed the beasts just enough to destroy the claws teeming with Lacertae's magic. Gray's exhaustion was masked by a satisfied smirk as his ice spread and latched onto anything it could, creeping along the ground in patches waiting to catch one of the beasts as Gemini-Aries blasted them with wool and Erza came at them from all sides with swords in hand. The real ram spirit had taken to blasting wool in seemingly unusual places, only for Lucy to use her whip to drag a beast just far enough to one side to catch it.

When the first beast fell, a small girl taking its place and fading into the spirit realm, it was a silent situation. However, the sudden diffusion of effort from three lizards to two was utterly dynamic in effect as the creatures were strained and dodging at an inhuman rate. Despite it all, though, the largest of the pack still kept a gleam in its eyes that continually sent chills down Lucy's spine.

With a shout and a wave of heat, Natsu landed a punch on the beast's head and it went rolling, sliding to a stop and curling it's arm to protect the three remaining claws it had. Aries and Gemini both worked to douse it in wool as Erza and Natsu went in for the final strike, so Lucy turned to Gray, who had laid a successful trap and had nearly frozen the last claws off of his own beast.

Time slowed to a halt as one of the claws froze and cracked, and just beyond it she could see the porch of the house wavering, violet poison glistening in the incomplete shadows as one lizard, nearly as large as the one Natsu had faced, tensed in preparation to pounce.

Natsu's battle cry and Erza's requip command rang out as the largest beast attempted to claw at them.

Gray sent a wave of ice lances as the lizard he'd caught thrashed in the ice.

Happy carried Aries upwards to bast wool from above as Gemini sent bomb after bomb from below.

All Lucy could to was extend her whip and scream.

In one instant, all eyes were on their own battles, but in the next, both sides of the battlefield had turned their attention to her, her whip mere feet above Gray's head as she tugged, pulling the airborne lizard from Gray and in the only direction she had enough force to take it that would keep its claws from her teammate.

Right into her own arms, the place where it wanted to be the most.

It's claws, sizzling with fresh poison and all perfectly intact, sank so deeply into her arms she felt the hum of the hardened protrusion sliding against the bones in her arms and shoulders, searing pain coursing through her limbs. Her scream morphed quickly from one of panic to one of pain, what was initially Gray's name cut off as she could focus on nothing but the burning of her vocal chords and the sizzling sound of her skin and bones burning. As her mind spiralled into a place splotched with dark spots, it was all she could do to keep her magic pumping into her spirits, trying with everything she had to ensure that the other two beasts were down before she thought about letting her hold slip.

But it wasn't slipping. She didn't have anything to hold onto beyond the sensation of cold claws and hot, acid-like poison digging into her flesh and bones and streaking through her bloodstream. Her whip had twisted the creature to keep it's claws from her teammate's head, but as a result, it's forearms were centered on her own while it's head was further down her body, jaws open as it worked desperately to draw her team from it's companions. Once again, she felt hard protrusions scraping along bone, although this time the pain shot through her leg as its teeth tore into her like blades, slicing through muscle and sending splatters of warm blood and sizzling venom over her lower body.

Her scream was cut short, going silent as her throat gave out on her, but in the end she was a distraction, a means of escape, and her reactions were a necessity.

Silence was not what the lizard had in mind. Just as it's teeth began to burrow further into her flesh, a different scream tore through the air, and a wave of heat seared through the space above her, sending the claws dragging over her chest in shallow cuts with the exception of one, hanging on with whatever it had as it left a deep, hissing gash on the juncture between her neck and shoulder.

Whether it was magic bleeding from her, or actual blood, she couldn't tell anymore. The battlefield was full of muffled explosions and obstructed voices and the sun was becoming harder and harder to see. A blur of blue passed through her vision and a much louder cry was heard. Colors filtered in, dulled by the dark splotches that were overtaking her vision. Pinks and golds, blacks and blues, silver and red and something indescribably dark swirling up into the sky, disappearing into the dark spots that were the only real thing she could focus on.

Someone said her name and a face filled up what was left of her field of vision before, with the most painful sigh she'd ever experienced, the last of her strength drained from her form and she collapsed into the sensation of pure numbness.


	3. Chapter 3

THERE IS NOTHING ON THIS EARTH MORE TO

BE PRIZED THAN TRUE FRIENDSHIP

—Thomas Aquinas—

* * *

He'd never known true silence. Every day since he'd begun using his magic, even the smallest of sounds had reached him, guided him, annoyed him and aided him.

He'd never known true silence, but for once, it was as if his senses had gone numb. The world around him was completely silent, except for her. Ragged breathing, sizzling skin, small whimpers of pain. The scent of blood and tears and the acrid smell of poison overwhelmed his nose. His eyes couldn't look anywhere else; they were glued to her. Her leg. Her arms. Her neck. Her face. Her blood.

Her blood was everywhere. He could smell it, hear it, see it, taste it, feel it running over his hands as he tried to staunch the flow of blood from her neck.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew he was crying. Screaming, too. Screaming her name, for her to open her eyes, for her to _stay_ _._

A cold hand wrapped around his wrists and moved them away, and in the next instant a patch of ice had formed over Lucy's neck, keeping the blood from spilling any further. The hands moved to one arm, then the other. Her leg. His face.

For a moment, he couldn't see anything. All he knew was Lucy, and when she left his vision it all stopped. He couldn't feel or smell or taste or hear or see or _breathe_ _._

Then Gray was there, yelling at him to snap out of it, demanding that he stop panicking and take her top half and God, Lucy was dying and he wasn't moving.

Happy had taken off with Erza. Loke had come out of his own accord, still injured but with just enough strength to take the now-human mages back to the celestial realm.

Gray had remained to help with the first aid, and Natsu had remained because he couldn't hear anything aside from Lucy's breathing. A sound that he slowly came to realize was far quieter than it had been mere moments a go, much more ragged and uneven and slow and-

It was stopping.

Lucy was stopping.

He lifted her onto the ice gurney Gray had made and covered with his own shirt, tied her on as carefully as he could with his scarf, and ran like his life depended on it.

To be honest, it did. Natsu's life had become entirely dependent on everything that was Lucy, and he was losing her.

By the time they arrived at the town, Erza had rounded up anyone that knew anything about medical aid and Happy was halfway to Magnolia in search of Wendy and Porlyusica. In his mind, he mapped out the route from the hag's house to Lamia Scale because Lucy was bleeding and Natsu was screaming and Happy wouldn't stop flying until he knew she would live.

Not knowing that much was terrifying for them all.

Gray removed his ice slowly so the medics could clean the wounds, but her arms were turning an odd color, a vibrant purple that Erza knew from her experiences with Cobra. Her leg was no better, her neck was the worst, and it was all they could do to apply pressure and bandages to stop the flow of blood and poison until Wendy or Porlyusica arrived.

Someone called for CPR.

Someone else called for more pressure on her leg.

Gray had never held tighter to anything in his life and Natsu had never realized how hard it was to keep a heart going until he was pumping Lucy's chest and filling her lungs with whatever air he had left in him.

Jet arrived, sweaty and out of breath, and collapsed on the ground from magical exhaustion as Wendy leapt from his back and sprinted to the makeshift emergency table, putting everything she had into healing the blonde.

It was hard to tell if she was breathing at all.

Porlyusica arrived next, an equally exhausted Carla resting beside Jet while the woman worked with her kit of herbs and asked too many questions that Gray struggled to answer. Slowly, the townspeople moved away as the three mages and the healer worked to keep the blonde alive.

By the time Chelia had arrived, Porlyusica was sweating and mixing herbs, the bandages were being changed by Gray, and Wendy was down for the count. Lucy's neck was mostly healed, though partially held by stitches, her arms were still open and her leg was slightly less mauled but still a sight that the Sky God had a hard time processing. Happy half-flew, half-crashed into Carla's arms and cried for all he was worth. Lyon arrived not long after Chelia had, held a hand over his mouth at the sight of Lucy, and took his place on the sidelines until he was needed.

Natsu's head took up Lucy's stomach as he closed his eyes and focused.

Her heart was beating.

Her lungs were breathing.

Her heart was beating.

Her lungs were breathing.

It was a mantra he kept reciting as he continually checked on her, occasionally sitting up when her breathing was jerky or her heart _might_ have stuttered, only to lay back down and return to his cycle.

The sun was low in the sky. Erza was still completing paperwork, speaking to people on lacrima screens, telling Master that Lucy had a chance if she made it through the night, crying because she could hear everyone in the guild crying and she knew as well as everyone else that losing Lucy wasn't something they could handle.

No one commented on Natsu's repeated whispers.

No one commented on Gray's pacing.

No one commented on Erza sniffling as she reported the incident to Lahar and Doranbolt.

No one commented on Wendy and Chelia discussing what needed healing next; the gaping claw marks on her arms or the chunk that had been ripped out of her leg.

No one said a word, choosing to spend their time hoping and praying and begging that, come morning, Lucy would still be there, alive. Maybe not well, maybe not awake, but alive.

When the moon began to peek above the treeline, the owner of the hotel came forward and asked that they move her back up to her room. He dismissed any and all charges for their stay, thanked them profusely for all that they'd done, and told them that if Lucy needed anything at all, to come straight to him and he'd have it done.

While the others did their best to compose themselves and thank him, Natsu simply took the blonde up into his arms and walked mechanically towards the door, eyes never leaving that little spot on her chest as it rose and fell, the faintest thumping sound still reaching his ears as he took the stairs to their room.

Her heart was beating.

Her lungs were breathing.

That was all he could ask for.

* * *

It was a restless night. Porlyusica took a room for herself while Wendy, Carla, Erza and Chelia took one opposite her.

Gray roomed with Lyon, one remaining silent while the other did his best to reassure his brother that it wasn't his fault, that just because another woman sacrificed herself for him doesn't mean it has to have been his fault. Lyon had no idea if he was making an impact while Gray couldn't find a way to voice just how much it meant to hear Lyon say it.

Natsu and Happy roomed with Lucy. Happy was curled up around her head and Natsu, careful as ever, adjusted her arm and placed his head over her heart. His arm wrapped around her stomach and his eyes trained on the wall to Lucy's side, taking comfort in the fact that his vision shifted with every breath she took.

No one slept.

Happy eventually went to Wendy and Chelia, and while Erza and Carla initially scolded him for entering the girls' room, they caved when his voice quivered and he asked Wendy if Lucy was going to wake up. As a response, the bluenette hugged him to her chest and told him that she would, because she was Lucy and Lucy would never give up.

Happy wailed, muffling himself with the little dragon's shirt, and a few rooms away Natsu let his scarf catch his tears because Wendy was right. Lucy would never give up, it was more fun when they were together.

He took in a shaky breath, closed his eyes, and let the sound of her heartbeat send him off into sleep.

* * *

She was dreaming. She had to be.

Considering how everything around her felt, there was no other explanation.

She couldn't feel her arms, one of her legs was numb and the other felt like it wouldn't move even if she wanted it to. Her eyes were blurry and unfocused, and her chest was heavy. Like any other lucid dream, she felt awkward in her own body but could at least figure out what was happening.

There were bandages on her arms, and she couldn't see her legs because there were blankets over them and a head of spiky pink hair blocked her view otherwise.

That explains why her chest feels so heavy.

By the time she realized there was _someone else_ in her bed, her heart was pounding a mile a minute.

When she realized it was Natsu, she held her breath and slowly came to the realization that she wasn't dreaming, she couldn't feel most of her limbs and Natsu was practically covering her.

She stayed that way for a while, trying to move her limbs while making as little noise as possible because on the one hand, she didn't want to wake him, but on the other, she had no idea how they'd gotten here, no idea why he was holding her, no idea why no one else was in the room, no idea why he was moving.

Oh stars above, he was moving.

For a moment, his eyes cracked open and he yawned, head shifting to rest in a different place on her chest, and she was certain he had gone back to sleep.

In the next instant his eyes were wide and he shot upwards, staring down at her chest before pressing his ear over it again. "No, no, no, no no no…" he whispered frantically, sitting back and pressing his hands to her sternum. When he pressed down, she coughed, her limbs flailed uselessly, and she gasped.

"What are you doing?" Her voice was raspy and her throat ached, but she paid it no mind as she glared him down. "Hands off the chest, perv!"

But his hands didn't move and as his eyes shot to her face, she couldn't bring herself to yell again. His eyes, already puffy and red, watered and overflowed with tears, and she lost every ounce of anger in her system. His hands finally moved from her chest to her cheeks and it took her a moment, but she focused enough to move one arm and managed to half-lift, half-swing it so that her hand could rest atop his. "Natsu? What's wrong?"

He broke then, collapsing onto her chest for the third time that morning, though this time he simply shook. Lucy felt his tears soaking through her shirt, and she put everything she had into moving so that she could hug him. "Shh," she whispered, running one hand carefully through his hair, "Natsu, it's all right. It's okay."

She had no idea how long they remained in that position, but by the time he stopped shaking and began to move away, she could move both arms and wiggle her toes.

A wide smile split over his face as he looked down at her from where he now sat cross-legged beside her, and she returned it for a moment. "I'm glad you're feeling better, but what's going on? I don't really remember much."

It took him a moment to realize what she meant, but when he did, his frown returned. "Do you remember the mission?" She nodded. "The house?" It took her a moment, but she nodded again, recalling the man before her standing on a table while she walked up a set of stairs. "The lizards?"

She stopped breathing again, though this time it was from pure terror. She wasn't one to be frightened easily, and aside from her avoidance of spiders and well-warranted fear of mages as powerful as Gildarts on the opposing side of a battle, she was never so much afraid as she was cautious. This feeling, however, made her skin go clammy and, if she wasn't so certain that Gray wasn't in the room, she would have suspected the very blood in her veins to have frozen. A sensation of pain washed over her form and centered on the three places she'd been struggling with all morning, and another ache formed at the base of her neck.

She could recall all too vividly how it felt to have something scrape along her bones, how it felt to have her skin melt and burn, how it felt to have teeth rip so deeply into her leg that a portion of it was torn away. Black scales and purple eyes and poison and pain and pain and _pain_ _._ She felt the weight of a monster on her chest as it thrashed and tore into her flesh, felt screams burning up her throat and past her lips, felt it now as if she were reliving the moment, as if she was there again with her back on the soft grass and a pounding on her chest and heat on her lips and-

It didn't feel the same at all.

Unlike the sensation of a scream tearing through her system, she felt the opposite; a gust of air, her throat feeling only the remnants of an ache, and the heat wasn't coming from her.

Apparently, she'd stopped breathing for too long.

Natsu leaned back and poised his hands over her chest again, and she realized she still wasn't breathing. She was shaking, sweating, crying, and a tingle in the back of her throat suggested she might have screamed. Erza bursting through the door, followed closely by Wendy and a half-asleep Chelia, confirmed that theory.

Her eyes were taking in bits and pieces of the world in her peripheral, her ears took in the muffled sounds, but all she could do was keep her eyes trained on the ceiling and cry and try to remember how to breathe when the pain wouldn't stop. Wendy hovered over one side of her, hands sweeping over her body in an attempt to find the source of it all, and she felt the soothing magic wash over her wounds. Chelia joined her, and slowly but surely the pain stopped.

Natsu came down again, but just as he prepared to breathe air into her she wiggled. He rose to give her space and she coughed to the side, neck protesting at the movement, before she turned her head back to the ceiling and focused on taking one shaky breath after another.

People were asking questions and Natsu was trying to answer them for her. She would help, but she still couldn't hear much over the sound of blood rushing through her system. The ghost of an ache alone had been enough to send her into a panic, and she hurriedly blocked out the mental images of the monster above her before she fell apart again. Her hand moved and her fingers stretched until she felt Natsu's hand, and she squeezed it like it was a lifeline.

Just like that, she was the center of attention. His attention, at least, because while the rest of the room kept humming with movement and questions and concerns, his eyes were trained on her.

"A-" she tried, but her throat gave on her and she had to cough again, the fresh pain of a recent bout of crying and screaming not doing her any favors. Her mouth opened again, and in a quiet rasp she was able to force out, "Are… they gone?"

"They're gone. All of them," Natsu answered, and it was then that the rest of the room realized he wasn't ignoring them. She was awake and she was talking and just like that, Erza was crying and Gray was clinging to her free hand and Porlyusica was barging in, telling them all to shut their mouths as she examined Lucy with a tenderness the blonde knew the old woman would never admit to having.

She heard the words "fine" and "time" and "don't bother me again," and just like that there was a tension in the room she hadn't noticed lifting off of her, a collective sigh sounded out, and this time all six of her teammates were crying, though Wendy and Carla stood back while the four that had been there with her collapsed onto the bed. Gray pressed part of his face onto her forearm and held tight to her hand, and she pretended not to feel his tears. Erza's hands were snug around her shin as she smiled and laughed and cried all at once. Natsu's head came down to rest on her forehead, one hand still firmly around hers.

Her heart was beating. Her lungs were breathing. She wasn't crying, screaming, or shaking. She was awake, alive and smiling at them all like they were her entire world.

They didn't quite realize it, but they were.

* * *

It didn't take long, but once she noticed it, it was constant. It was like a flip had switched; for better or for worse, she wasn't sure just yet.

Erza was still Erza, eating sweets at any and every opportunity and smacking the boys when they argued. She polished her swords while she talked to Lucy and gave advice that was either ingenious or… well, Erza. Lucy wasn't too sure that packing cake in a bag was a good idea, but she wouldn't argue the point when Erza brought out enough tupperware to feed the guild from one of her many luggage bags.

Gray was still Gray, freezing Natsu's cups to the tables and throwing his shirt off at the most inopportune times. He made little creations in the palm of his hand to show Lucy because he knew how beautiful she thought they were, but eventually they all became weapons that he mercilessly tossed down Natsu's shirt. They would brawl, and Lucy would pull her pillow over her ears when Erza caught them before they could feign friendship.

Happy was still Happy, using her chest as pillows and begging for fish from everyone he came across. He would sit in Natsu's hair and drone on about how cute Carla looked and how he wondered what kind of fish she would like best, and Natsu would encourage him to try something new. He'd fly through all of the stores in the market looking for something new and exciting and the next thing he knew, he had a regular old fish in his hands and a nice bow to top the gift.

Natsu was still Natsu, aggravating Gray almost as much as Gray aggravated him, turning into Happy #2 if Erza got too close, and eating way too much food for any normal person. That's how he'd been the day she'd met him, and that's how he'd always be. It was as much a part of him as his pink hair and white scarf and obsession with all things destructive.

But that wasn't all there was to each of them. There was so much more, and it was that _much more_ that seemed to have changed.

If Lucy had been bedridden under any other circumstances, Erza would have been eating at the cafe downstairs without a worry in her mind. Gray would be spending time with Lyon and pretending Erza ordered him to play nice. Chelia and Wendy would be talking and training and teaching one another everything they could before they had to part ways, Happy and Carla watching overhead and arguing about the benefits of tea over fish. Natsu would be playing with fire out of sheer boredom, but would refuse to leave Lucy to be bored all by herself and nearly burn the room down as a result.

Everything would be the same as it was now, but it would be lacking the tense air that she was currently surrounded in.

Gray, Lyon, and Erza constantly checking in on her.

Wendy and Chelia refusing to practice so they could reserve their magic.

Happy and Charla resting their wings just in case three healers wasn't enough.

Natsu refusing to leave not because Lucy would be bored on her own, but because he couldn't hear her breathing if he wasn't there.

They were still fun-loving, quirky, obnoxious, kind, and every other word she'd had them labelled as from the moment they'd met. Now, she was forced to add a new word to her specified dictionary.

Fragile.

She'd always known they had gentle hearts under their battle-loving, unwavering exteriors. But there was so much more it than a mere gentle heart.

Erza had lost too many people because she had been a second too slow, and Lucy had been there, mere seconds away from death's door.

Gray had already had one woman sacrifice herself for him, and Lucy had been there, taking the hit that he knew would have been his.

Natsu knew what happened when he looked away. Igneel disappeared. Lisanna disappeared. Lucy… she was still there. But she had been there, lungs frozen, heart fluttering, poison and blood flowing in all the wrong places.

She had been disappearing, even when he had been looking right at her.

It was a scary thing for them, seeing her slipping so far so fast, seeing her suffering because of the very things they'd worked so hard to never let repeat. It was also something they needed. She nearly did it all; a second too fast for Erza, one sacrifice too many for Gray, faded before Natsu.

Nearly.

But there was one word that they all had to add to their own dictionaries, one they'd seen, heard, and felt. One they'd had front-row seats to time and time again, one that they knew they shouldn't doubt because it was the only thing that had kept her alive.

She was determined, strong-willed, occasionally narcissistic, confident, happy, smart, and every other word they'd had her labelled as from the moment they'd met. But there was one word they'd always seemed to overlook as nothing more than a title, an ironic joke that wasn't so ironic after all.

Lucy was many things, but first and foremost, she was lucky.

She would always last one second more, always make a sacrifice rather than be one, always be on the verge of disappearing when, suddenly, everything took a turn for the better. Close calls were around every corner, but just when they thought it was a lost cause, a stroke of luck would find its way to them.

* * *

Blurred shapes greeted her as she clawed her way out of her morning nap, yawning and stretching in every possible way. It had been nearly a week, and with the help of Porlyusica for the first three days and Chelia for the first five, she'd recovered immensely. Wendy still lingered, but only for the occasional check-up on what was left of her wounds and bandages.

The stellar mage could stand on her own and walk for the most part, though her injured leg was a little sore and both legs were weak in general from being in bed so often. She probably wouldn't have been able to walk so soon, but after going straight from the battlefield to being doused in medicines and then resting in bed for so long, she'd been desperate for a shower and Wendy couldn't form an argument once her dragon senses kicked in and the smell really hit her.

After that, she'd been able to shower and dress herself, but otherwise she was sentenced to bedrest with Natsu channeling whatever skills in the kitchen he had to help sate her hunger with sandwiches and water.

With a raspy sigh, her head lolled to the side and stared at the small alarm clock, realizing that by now Natsu would be in the kitchen that the hotel's owner had allowed them to use. Despite this, her throat was ungodly dry and she was both impatient and independent.

Not only did she not _want_ to wait for someone to bring her water, she didn't _have_ to wait. If she could make it to the shower and back by her third day of recovery, then surely she could make it down a few stairs to get some water, and if need be Natsu could help her back up. With that in mind, she flung off the covers, slid her feet into a pair of slippers, and let one hand on the wall steady her on her way out of the room.

She glared at the stairs for a moment, cursing both how narrow and how tall they were, before shrugging to herself, placing one hand on either side like the rail-hog she was, and made her very, very slow descent. By the time she actually made it into the kitchen, her throat was an itchy mess, and she couldn't get to the water fast enough. Natsu was grumbling as he tried to scrape the last bit of mayo out of a jar, something about how the condiment was disgusting but he'd power through this one last time, and Lucy snorted as she pulled a glass from the cabinet and started in on the water pitcher.

"Mayo isn't that bad."

"It really is. Have you _smelled_ this stuff?"

"There's your first mistake! You don't smell it, you eat it."

"Why would I ever eat- wait. Waaait." Natsu turned then, staring wide-eyed over his shoulder at the blonde, who was still waiting for her glass to fill. "Lucy!?"

"Yeah?"

Natsu hurriedly slapped the sandwiches together and set the plates down before turning and taking the glass gently from her hands, using one hand to keep the water running as the other pulled out a chair from the nearest table. "You shouldn't be walking around yet, you're still injured. Sit and eat, I'll get this."

"I'm fine, Natsu, it's not like I'm going to reopen a wound by getting a drink." Lucy rolled her eyes as he continued to make a fuss out of nothing. "I can take care of myself a _little_ bit, you know."

"Yeah, but I can take care of you too, and I don't have any gaping wounds or bandages or stitches. So I win." Natsu frowned as he set the glass in front of her. "Also, why does your voice sound so weird? Are you catching a cold or something? I can ask for more blankets for you, or maybe see if Wendy has anything for a sore throat."

"Natsu, I'm fine," the blonde sighed. "I really just needed some water."

"Still, we can't take any risks. You've got to focus more on healing your-" Lucy groaned aloud, cutting Natsu's little worry-wort tirade off. "What? I'm serious, Luce, you need to rest and avoid getting sick until you can walk-"

"I _can_ walk. I can take a shower, I can get dressed, I came all the way downstairs and if you don't mind I'll be going back upstairs-"

"Luce-"

" _By myself_." With that, Lucy was on her way to the hallway, glass near-empty on the table and sandwich untouched.

She made it all of five steps, approaching her third stair, when she felt a hand on her own. She turned to snap at the persistent mage, only to pause when she saw both sandwiches balanced on one plate in his other hand and eyes so sad she honestly wanted to kick herself.

Without another word, she let him walk up the steps with her, and while she refused to let him help her, she didn't try to take her hand out of his. The pair walked back into the hotel room she'd become so accustomed to, and she made sure to pat the end of the bed so he knew he could sit there.

He pulled her plate from beneath his, slid her sandwich over, and set it down before her as he started in on his own. Lucy looked down at her own, before letting her gaze slide to the side where her toes wiggled beneath the covers, and in her own offput mind, she imagined them all yelling at her to say something.

Yes, she was being motivated by her toes, and no, she really couldn't argue with that because it was happening and it was working. Her mind was weird, but effective. So, with another sigh, she tried to think of what to say.

Natsu beat her to the punch with a burp and a question of, "What's wrong? Not enough mayo?"

"N-No, the sandwich is fine, it's just… I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier." Her eyes raised to meet his, and despite his easy smile, she could tell he was still hurt by how angry she'd been. "It's not that I don't appreciate your help. I really do, and I'm so thankful to have you here to help me through all of this. I just… I like to be able to do things on my own, and I'll never improve if I stay in bed all day. I've got to start moving again, more than just a shower or a change of clothes."

"I know," Natsu replied, letting his head fall to rest in one hand as he pouted. "Still, ya don't have to get mad at me for worrying. If I almost died and a week later I was trying to get back into a guild brawl, you'd probably worry, too."

"I should," Lucy agreed, "but I also know you've done worse than a guild brawl after only a week of rest, so I wouldn't be surprised." Natsu grinned at her remark, and she chuckled at how proud he seemed of his trouble-finding abilities. "I guess I can see where you're coming from, though. I would definitely worry."

The pinkette nodded his head a few times before flopping back on the bed as Lucy started in on her sandwich. "It's not just me, though. You know how worried Erza and Gray are. Happy, too, even though he talks more about fish than anything." Lucy watched as he shifted for a moment so that he could meet her eyes, leaving his legs hanging over the bedside. "You're not just a team member, Luce. You're family, and you can't scare us like that without expecting us to get a little…"

"Overprotective? Weird? Stalker-ish? Reluctant to let me brush my own hair?" That last remark was directed more towards Erza than anyone, but luckily she wasn't in the room to tackle the blonde with a hairbrush again.

Natsu nodded solemnly despite her effort at lightening the mood. "Of course. You know how… how hard it is to…" his brow furrowed as he tried to explain, before he sighed and let his hands drop. "You know how we all have a different story, right? Gray and Ur, Erza and Jellal, me and Igneel?"

Lucy nodded, leaning forward to comb her free hand through his hair. "I know, Natsu, and I get it. I know why you're all so worried about me, but you've gotta know by now that I'm not going anywhere. I like you all too much for that. You're kinda stuck with me, whether you like it or not."

"I like it," he mumbled, and her hand halted as his own moved up to grab her wrist. "So you really should stay. Please." She moved to link her fingers through his as he took a steadying breath. "We can't… _I_ can't stand to lose anyone else. Especially you."

"Of course," the blonde replied, "it's always more fun when we're together. I'll always stay."

"What if it's not fun?" Natsu asked. "What if it's really, really boring?"

"Then I'll stay and _make_ it fun!" Lucy laughed, and her smile spread to Natsu's face as he joined her. Her wrist turned from side to side, shaking his hand with hers almost as if their hands were dancing, and Natsu let her, in part because it made her smile. Another part of him, one he'd never felt much from, let her do it because it meant she wasn't going to let go.

Despite how much he enjoyed her hand in his, eventually his face twisted into a slight grimace, and Lucy's hand slowed. The slayer glared at the sandwich sitting not far from his face, and with a snort, Lucy moved it away. "What? It smells bad!"

"Like I said, you don't smell it," the blonde chastised, "you _eat_ it. Try a bite."  
"No thanks."

"Oh, come on. You eat everything! Don't miss out on good food because you think it smells weird."

"Exactly, I already eat everything else, I don't need any more options!"

The stellar mage sighed at how his nose scrunched in defiance, and shrugged her shoulders. "Fine, more for me then." Her hand slipped from his as she began to eat, trying and nearly failing to keep the bread crumbs off of the bedsheets, and Natsu began to wonder if he could snatch her hand again once she finished. He'd never really seen the appeal in holding a person's hand, mostly because it was harder to get things done with only one hand, but with Lucy, he liked the comfort of knowing she was there and holding on just as tight.

It was only when something pressed into his forehead that he realized he'd lost himself in his thoughts, and his own eyes crossed as they tried to see the source of the pressure. Above him was Lucy's hand, a finger poking him out of the daze he'd been in, and he took the easy opportunity to hold it by removing it and refusing to let it go.

For her part, Lucy didn't mind so much either. Best friends, partners, guild members, and family; there wasn't anyone in the world she was closer to, and watching him wiggle his fingers relentlessly just so they were laced with her own had her heart skipping beats in a much less worrisome way than a few days prior. Then again, when it came to the condition of her heart, Natsu certainly wasn't helping as he placed what she thought was a kiss on the back of her fingers. It was only when his bright grin turned to her and he confirmed that mayonnaise really wasn't that bad that she realized he'd been more interested in the food, but her blood was rushing to her cheeks regardless.

"Ew, Wendy, look away. The idiot's being gross, you don't need to see this," Gray groaned as he opened the door, quickly tossing his hand over the young healer's eyes. Erza was nearly as red as Lucy as she took in the scene, gaping like a fish before opting to pretend she'd seen nothing.

"U-um," Wendy began, unsure of how to address the group with a hand over her eyes, "Lucy, you're healed enough now that we could move to the guild infirmary if you'd like. I wanted to wait until you could walk on your own, and, uh…"

"We overheard you giving Natsu a piece of your mind and figured you were ready," Gray finished. Happy, in an attempt to support his friend, bumped a bit too hard into Gray's head as he flew past him into the room, quickly curling up in Lucy's lap as an extra layer of protection from the grumpy ice mage.

Natsu sat up and combed through his hair with one hand, the other still gripping Lucy's. "When do you want start heading home, Luce?" She grinned at the word 'home' and he already knew the answer, so he pulled her up to her feet and slung his arm around her waist. Had he not been holding her hand moments before, Lucy would have moved away to walk on her own, but as it were she didn't mind the extra support.

Gray, Carla and Wendy wandered ahead of the group to grab train tickets as Erza stayed behind to speak to the hotel's owner. Happy would have helped Lucy along, but he wasn't nearly as dense as his pink-haired friend and decided to leave the pair alone in favor of searching for the taiyaki vendor once again. The walk was slow and a little painful, but feeling the air on her face and Natsu's arm keeping her steady made even the sharpest pains numb in the blonde's mind. By the time they'd reached the station, everyone was ready to go, and the group filed into a cart. Natsu's head came to rest atop the uninjured leg as he prepared for the horror of the train, and was asleep in an instant as Lucy's fingers combed through his hair.

"So, you and flame brain, huh?" Gray asked from his seat opposite her. "I was wondering when you two would figure it out."

Lucy blinked, cheeks reddening immensely as the girls nodded their assent. "Wait, wait," she said, whispering for Natsu's sake, "we're not... I mean, we haven't… I don't know if he knows." At the blank stares she received, she sighed, looking down at her partner. "He's a little dense when it comes to things like this," Lucy mumbled, "so I don't know if he's seeing all of this through the same eyes I am. We never really talked or anything, it's just…"

"I see," Erza hummed. "But, I do think he's aware. I'd speak to him when you can, if only to relieve your own mind, but I'm certain he's discovered his own feelings." Worded like that, Lucy's flush returned, and Gray chuckled at her expense.

"He's definitely an idiot," the ice mage said, and for a moment, Lucy thought her partner twitched, "but he's not _that_ much of an idiot, I hope. Just ask him, he'll either sweep you a way or tempt you to punch him, and if he really doesn't get it already, he probably won't understand the question anyways."

"He loooooves you," was Happy's only contribution, which Carla very plainly rolled her eyes at.

Once her supposed love life had been sufficiently addressed by everyone in the train car, Lucy was relieved to find they'd moved onto a different topic, though she wasn't so sure she wanted to discuss it all just yet. As their chatter wandered towards the mission at hand, Gray was the first to ask, "Have you heard from Loke or any of the others? We never were able to complete the report because we don't really know what happened to… them."

"I haven't asked the spirits about it yet," Lucy responded, "but they've all been a bit quiet about the outcome. I'll be sure to complete the report once I hear from them about the issue. If I had to take a guess, though, the celestial mage that absorbed Lacertae's magic is most likely being punished for committing the taboo. I don't know who the others involved were."

The knight nodded, leaning back in her seat with a small yawn. "I'm going to rest for a while. Gray, don't wake Natsu up, and Happy, no stealing from the food vendors."

"Aye, sir," Happy mumbled sadly as Gray tried to hide his disappointment. Wendy giggled at the pair before she and Carla decided to explore the train they'd be spending much of their time on.

The ice mage waited until he was certain Erza was sound asleep, before giving Lucy a pleading glance. She hesitated for all of one second before sighing, reaching into her purse and offering him her beloved waterproof eyeliner. "Don't do too much, that costs more than you think." With that small warning, she let her teammate have at the sleeping Slayer's face.


	4. Chapter 4

WE ALL HAVE BIG CHANGES IN OUR LIVES THAT ARE

MORE OR LESS A SECOND CHANCE

—Harrison Ford—

* * *

Natsu was kind enough to walk her to her apartment, helping her all the way up the stairs as Happy opened the doors. He'd set her bags down on her bedroom floor and was preparing to help himself to a shower before he realized that either the blonde needed a more accurate mirror, or he needed to postpone a shower altogether in favor of throwing a few punches at Gray. So, with a quick goodbye and smudges covering his face, he was out the doors.

"Happy," Lucy called as the small cat prepared to chase after Natsu, "be sure to tell Master I'll be there as soon as I unpack, alright?" He cheered that he'd remember before darting out the door, and she chuckled as she heard him yelling encouraging words to the furious Dragon Slayer. For the first time in what felt like years, she was back home and left alone. No hovering teammates, no anxious medics, no-one around but herself and her spirits.

Although the shaking from the train ride and the walk up the stairs had her leg throbbing with a small ache, she was determined as she hobbled across her room and grabbed the fluffiest pair of pajamas she owned before marching into her bathroom and starting up her bath. Showers were all fine and dandy, but this was the moment she'd been looking forwards to from the day they'd left Magnolia. She sank far beneath the water, stretching out until her legs ran out of room and the water was lapping at her chin.

As far as healing was concerned, only a few minor gashes remained, not nearly large enough for a bath to do her any harm. They stung a small bit as the hot water encompassed her, but they calmed down with time and finally, she was able to relax. She reached to the side and dropped a bath bomb in, making sure the color hid her form from anyone that might barge in, before she deemed herself safe from any accidental peeping and summoned Plue.

Like any other time he was summoned, he was a shivering, excited little mess, but he quickly scrambled his way up to the top of her countertop and began to draw shapes on the steamed mirror. "Puun puun," he murmured, and Lucy smiled.

"I missed you too, Plue. How are the other spirits doing? I know there must be a lot going on."

"Puun, punpun puun pun pu-puun." His wiggling arms and bobbing head gave more indication than whatever noises he was making, but Lucy humored him as best she could.

"I'm glad to hear it. Any news on the mages we fought? We need to complete the report to the magic council, especially since we don't have anyone in this realm to punish for the murders."

"...Puuuuuuun."

That was probably the blondes least favorite reply, because if anyone knew when things were going to be difficult, it was her little dog spirit. He seemed uncertain, though she wasn't sure of what. Perhaps the situation, the answer, or possibly even both were unsettling to him. "Should I ask Loke to explain?"

"Pun puun," Plue answered, nodding his small head so quickly she was afraid he'd fall from his current perch on the counter. With a deep sigh, Lucy unplugged the bath and let the water drain around her before trying to get up. If all else went wrong today, at least she smelled nice.

* * *

Usually, there wasn't much warning for an impending attack, but just this once, Gray was given a notice. It came in the form of the guild doors swinging open so forcefully that the knobs cracked against the walls, and he had just enough time to turn his head before a set of knuckles was crashing into his nose.

"Natsu!" Mira chastised, but her hand slapped over her mouth when the seething man turned to her, his decorated face causing her to stifle laughter as she waved her own warning off and let him attack his teammate. The brawl only grew as Gray gathered his bearings and fought back, Gajeel being dragged in as soon as an insult left his mouth, and Elfman joining in with the declaration that drawing on people wasn't manly. Somehow, the two sides seemed to split and it went from a team brawl to a free-for-all, though Macao wasn't entirely sure complaining about his spilled beer warranted a kick to the head.

Cana was nearly dragged in on accident when the old man grabbed for anything to drag himself out of the quarrel, but by the time she'd shaken him off, Gildarts was on the group in a fury for nearly laying a hand on his daughter.

By the time Erza broke up the men enough to ask Natsu where Lucy was, Gajeel and Gray had been tossed back through the guild doors and Elfman was in a headlock by the guild's ace, Macao scrambling for escape from beneath the man's iron leg as Cana laughed and drank what was left of his booze.

"Lucy? She's at her place," Natsu answered as Happy flew in.

"Lushy said she'll be here when she's done unpacking," the cat called as he swooped onto the bar for a fish. "But I think she just wants a nap."

"She's been napping for a week," Gray said with a roll of his eyes. "If anything, she just wants a break from flame-brain. He hasn't left her alone for days."

"From what I recall, all three of you were hovering, weren't you?" Carla called, and Juvia nearly fainted from heartbreak when Gray blushed at the cat calling him out. "Not that I blame you, it was quite an awful sight, but you shouldn't blame him for worrying."

"Haha, yeah," Happy agreed before looking to the wailing water mage, "don't worry, Juvia, Lucy's not a love rival."

At that remark, Gray's mischievous smile returned as he slung his arm over Natsu's shoulders, and for once, Erza looked just as amused as he did. "Oh, yeah, lover-boy over here's been _all_ over Lucy."

"It was quite sweet," Erza noted, the motherly grin on her face embarrassing Natsu more than Gray's jeers.

By the time Mira processed what she'd heard, she was a squealing mess, crouched behind the bar in an attempt to hide her excitement. Natsu took the opportunity to land a solid uppercut on Gray, and Erza gave a little show of support for her mortified friend by shoving the unbalanced ice mage into Juvia's waiting arms.

"Wait, wait," Lisanna called, leaning over the bar as she tried to calm Mira down, "if that's true, then why are you here? Shouldn't you be helping her unpack?"

"Leaving Lucy to unpack all by herself for a brawl?" Gildarts chided, and Elfman pulled the arm from his neck just long enough to let out a bellow of 'UNMANLY' before being subdued once again. "Come on, Natsu. You were right there!" For a moment, everyone was smiling as Gildarts tried to encourage the boy to help his partner, but their faith shattered just like Cana's bottle of booze over his head as he finished with, "You have any idea how close you were to her panty drawer?"

"Perverted old man," Cana complained, before staring at the pinkette, "but he's really not wrong."

"Cana! Don't say such terrible things-" Gildarts tried, but was silenced by another bottle from his daughter.

By the time Lisanna actually convinced Natsu to go back to the blonde's apartment, the guild was a battleground as everyone argued over whether or not the panty drawer was an adequate reason to return. Oddly enough, Mirajane was voting a vehement yes, though Erza was preparing to draw swords to defend the honor of her teammate.

* * *

Throwing on whatever outfit she could find that didn't rub on any of her injuries, the blonde considered herself decent and planted herself on her couch, swinging her Lion's key through the air and watching as he appeared with a tired smile. His usually-pristine suit and tie were starting to look a bit wrinkled, the tie loose around his neck, and his hair looking nearly as disheveled as Natsu's.

Taking note of her worried glances, Loke moved to sit beside her on the couch and let his smile reach his eyes. "You look concerned, my dear, but there's no need. It's been a bit hectic in the spirit world. She'll drown me for telling you this, but Aquarius has been nothing but trouble, flinging water at your attackers every chance she gets. She's quite protective of you, you know." At that, Lucy's face split into a warm smile. "Ahh, that's what I was hoping to see! Radiant as the stars!"

His flirtatious self came back in full force, and Lucy felt immensely better. A week without seeing any of her spirits had been more draining than she'd realized, and Loke seemed to have suffered the same, though it hadn't been nearly so long for him.

Before she could get a word in, her loyal spirit shifted, pulling a glimmering silver key from his pocket and offering it to his mage. "Capricorn and Virgo are escorting the man that committed the taboo to the council, along with the rest of that report Erza was worrying over. The others, the man's family, were merely victims. The magic he couldn't contain within himself, he forced onto them, and as the one directing the magic, he had full control over their actions. They've all long outlived their stay in this realm, as has the man himself. The Spirit King will handle the finer details."

"So, this key… it's Lacertae's?" Lucy asked, and upon Loke's nod, her brow furrowed. "But I thought it was supposed to be black?"

"If the magic was denied re-entry into the spirit world, yes. The gate would be closed and null," Loke explained. "However, the magic was never banned from our world. We're all immortal so long as a part of us remains, and your team was able to free the magic trapped here. It took a while, and a lot of help from the King, but Lacertae has made her own recovery. Although not her fault, she's been feeling immensely guilty for your injuries and the lives that were taken by her previous master. She's requested to form a contract with you, as a way to repent."

"That sounds familiar," Lucy recalled, and Loke chuckled, glancing away as she tossed him a knowing look. When his eyes returned to her, however, they widened and he hardly had time to stand before Lucy screamed and threw herself as far from the center of the room as she could.

The idea of contracting a spirit was nothing new to her, and she'd pushed her magic into the key just as she had with every other spirit she'd come to meet. However, the sight of amethyst eyes and gleaming claws had her revisiting memories she still wasn't ready to face.

For his part, Loke could only try to block her view of the spirit, wondering why, in all of his ramblings, he hadn't mentioned Lacertae's appearance. She looked no different from the lizard that had ripped into Lucy, but even so she scrambled back and waited for Loke to direct her as the mage she'd wanted to contract fell into a spiral of fear. All three were lost; Lucy with invisible wounds reopened, Loke unsure of how to resolve this overlooked issue, and Lacertae, hoping for all the world that a second chance was somewhere on her horizon.

* * *

Fiddling mindlessly with his scarf, Natsu walked alongside the canal and tried fruitlessly to stop blushing. Grays words didn't bother him as much as he thought they might, but that smile Erza had given him? He didn't know much about parents, really, but it was the same smile Igneel would give him after he learned a new spell, or that Gildarts had shown when he'd completed his first real mission.

It was proud, it was happy, and it brought about a different kind of embarrassment that Natsu just couldn't shake off. He saw his red cheeks reflected in the canal water and turned his head away, focusing instead on quickening his pace on his trek to Lucy's apartment.

By the time Strawberry Street came into his view, his cheeks drained of any color they'd had, and his brisque walk turned into a sprint as her scream rang through his ears. He passed his usual window entrance and dove up the stairs in an attempt to get to the door, but stopped as he stared at the three figures in the room.

Loke, arms outstretched in front of a quivering Lucy. Behind him was a face Natsu had never hoped to see again, but before his fist could make contact, Loke was there to catch it. "What the hell, Loke!? You're defending that-"

"It's not the criminal!" The spirit shouted back, and Natsu paused, taking note not of the claws and scales, but of the fear in those amethyst eyes, the way the creature huddled in fear not of him, but of the blonde across the room. "That's Lacertae. The spirit. She's… she looks the same, but she's not going to hurt anyone. She wants to repent for what her previous owner did to Lucy." That was all Loke had time to say before Natsu yanked his fist back and moved to the blonde on the floor, her hands latching onto his vest and making it easy for him to scoop her into his arms.

"Both of you. Kitchen. Wait." The slayer turned and moved towards Lucy's bed, shutting the door firmly behind him as Loke and Lacertae went to the room opposite them. By the time he reached Lucy's bed, he realized her screams had subsided to whimpers, her shivering had worsened, and her quaking fingers had no real intent of letting him go. With that in mind, he seated himself on the bed and let her remain in his lap, and she didn't shift an inch outside from leaning further into him, but he knew it had less to do with his closeness and more with how far she could physically be from the door separating her from the spirit.

He didn't say a word, simply holding her in his arms and focusing on her breathing, which was ragged but ever so surely slowing down to a normal rate. Her hands still shook, but looking at them he couldn't tell. The feeling of her fingers on his chest, grasping his vest so tightly that her knuckles were white, gave her trembling away. It was only when she shifted away of her own free will that he let his hold loosen to give her room, but she didn't say a word, opting to stare at her hands and drift into her own mind.

After what felt like a true eternity, her head tilted just enough for his face to fall into her peripheral, and she asked, "What do I do?" It was a loaded question, and one he didn't really know how to answer. It was also rhetorical, because he knew voicing the question was just how Lucy refocused her thoughts. He only really began to worry when she repeated the question, as if she couldn't focus or wasn't satisfied with her own thoughts.

Lucy was many things, and intelligent was one of the most prominent facets of her person. Her uncertainty was reflected tenfold onto her partner, because if she couldn't choose amidst her own thoughts, then he was utterly lost. The third time she asked, her eyes met his, and he knew she needed some kind of an answer, something to help her choose between what she knew and what she felt.

So, he looked to the door, almost as if he could see through the wood to those frightened eyes and shivering scales, and said, "Lacertae was afraid, too."

Lucy nodded, her gaze returned to her hands, and he noted the way they began to steady. "She was, wasn't she?" Another stretch of silence filled the air, and Natsu waited for her to ask another question, but rather than give any semblance of having found an answer, she moved to stand. Her hands fell away from his vest, but one latched onto his own hand, and just like that, he was opening the door and making his way to the kitchen with her.

Loke leapt to his feet when the door opened, and Lucy flinched as Lacertae's head whipped to face her. Her shaking returned full force, but the blonde held her ground. "Lacertae," she addressed, trembling voice giving away her fear. She tensed, eyes widening in surprise, when she heard a response.

"Yes! Y...yes, Lucy?" The abrupt reply was followed by a much calmer version, and the sweet, gentle voice that came from the spirit seemed to reassure Lucy more than anything even Natsu himself could have said.

"You look… nothing like my attacker," Lucy began, hand tightening on Natsu's before she released her hold entirely. "The cold eyes, the way they loomed over me… you don't look like that at all. And even if you did, just because you look like them doesn't mean you'll make the same choices they did. For that reason… I'd like to make a contract. With you."

She still trembled a bit, and was jumpy if Lacertae moved too quickly, but she was controlling her breathing and holding her ground. She was looking the spirit in the eye as she extended a hand, and for the duration those claws lingered near her arm, she didn't once look away.

"I'm free whenever you need me, for as long as you hold my key, Master."

"Thank you, but please call me Lucy. My spirits are my family, not my property." As quickly as it had begun, Loke whisked Lacertae back into the spirit world, and Lucy moved until her back found Natsu's chest and her hands found his. "Natsu?"

"Yeah, Luce?"

"Thank you." Her head leaned back, eyes closed, and a smile broke out over her face. "Thank you."

Rather than reply, Natsu let his arms wrap around her waist in a hug, and they stood in the kitchen for far too long, saying nothing as they both took time to calm themselves down with the presence of one another serving as an anchor.

By the time Lucy's heart rate returned to normal and Natsu was no longer on edge, he decided it was time to breach a far more important topic. "So," he began softly, hoping to avoid scaring her as he broke the silence, "are you sure you want to go to the guild today?"

"Of course. I miss everyone," Lucy responded, turning in his arms with concern in her eyes. "Why? Is something wrong?"

"Not wrong, really," the pinkette answered, "but Mira's making a list of baby names for us and Gildarts is trying to get me to raid your panty drawer. Oh, and Juvia's celebrating because she's short one love rival. Just… just the usual."

"You know… aside from Juvia, the rest really is the usual, isn't it?" Lucy stated, once again staring at her hands. "I guess… I mean, she… she's not wrong, is she?"

Just like that, Natsu realized why everyone had _really_ been so intent to send him back to Lucy's apartment. It had nothing to do with what she wore and everything to do with the fact that he was, as they all well knew, painfully dense. He knew what he'd been doing; holding her hand, holding _her_ , asking her to stay by his side. But he was also notoriously blind, as far as most everyone knew. The only people who even had an inkling that he understood the concept of love outside of family were Gildarts, the one that had taught him about the birds, the bees, and quite literally everything in between… and Gray, who only got along with him when they were atop Droy's back, spying on the girl's bath house and getting their asses handed to them when they were caught.

Lucy, though? She probably thought he was clueless. So, he took what little knowledge he'd actually learned from the magazines Gildarts tried to force him to read before he burned them, and wrapped her up in a hug. He didn't know much outside of this, but he put his best effort into giving his partner a kiss on the forehead, something he also hadn't understood the appeal of until he met her. If she hadn't been sure, which he wouldn't blame her for, he topped it all by replying, "Of course she's not wrong, Luce. I don't share. Especially not with Gray."

He could only exhale and grin when the blonde hugged him back. He felt her smile against his chest, and for the first time in his life, he was actually _glad_ Gildarts had given him those downright disturbing lectures.

Lucy, on the other hand, was both shocked that Natsu knew anything outside of high-fives and hugs, and downright giddy with happiness as she realized that this hadn't all been another Virgo-digging-up-photos incident. By the time she released him from the hug and snagged one of his hands, she decided she definitely wanted to go to the guild, if only so she could celebrate with every man, woman and child in that guildhall over something they'd all, in their own way, assured her of. Whether it was Cana slurring that it was in the cards, Mira taking bets, or Happy squealing out that Natsu loved her, they'd all put their chips in and waited, some more patiently than others.

The moment she said she was ready to go to the guild, Natsu smiled and walked with her all the way there, and while her mood dipped a little when her legs started to shake, it rose ever higher when he wrapped an arm around her and left it there even as they waltzed through the guild doors and Levy tackled her with congratulations.

How he held her up when that tiny freight train hit, she'll never know, but she _did_ know it took more restraint than he'd like to admit considering the jeers of the men in the guild. She gently moved his hand from her waist, and he looked confused until he saw Levy help her to sit.

"Go get em'," Lucy laughed, and Levy cheered him on as he threw the guild into yet another brawl, though this time Cana, Erza and Mira were safely beside Lucy and Gildarts had no real reason to interfere.

Of course an interrogation ensued, one Lucy had anticipated, and Juvia was nearly sobbing with joy as she hugged her ex-rival. People wanting to avoid the brawl drifted to Lucy's table to ask questions or give congratulations, though one of Gajeel's more crude comments was greeted by Natsu's magic-encased fist and followed promptly by a knee to the groin from Erza, who decided Lucy's honor was at risk and threw herself into the brawl.

The moment the redhead was out of sight, Lucy felt a slight tug at her magic, and willed it forward as Loke made his appearance, arm draped over the back of her seat as his face dropped to the same level as hers. "Loke!" She grinned, surprised to see him back so soon, "how is Lacertae doing?"

"Much better, Princess. She did mention something about showing you her abilities, when you feel up to it-" A weight lifted from her shoulder as Loke's voice cut off, and she turned to see Natsu had flung him into the brawl.

"Too close to Luce, lover boy," he called, only to catch a glimpse of Lucy's raised brow and dive back into the brawl for his own safety.

The blonde's head turned at the sound of the girls' laughter, smiling as Lisanna sighed and shook her head. "It's good to know some things never change," she giggled, only to let out a full laugh when Levy tried to reenact the pinkette's expression. Lucy laughed along, a smile dancing on her lips as the youngest Strauss's words.

"I guess you're right," she said, watching Natsu smash a chair cleanly over Elfman's head, "but even if everything else stays the same, it's nice to know there's a little something more."


End file.
